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1882 



TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES, 



TO THE 



Rev. Dr. E. HSTOTT, LL.D, 

PRESIDENT UNIOH COLLEGE, SCPXECTADY, U.S.A. 



Paris, Mat 1st, 1860. 

My Dear Str, 

Since I last wrote you, I have had an interesting 
interview with Cardinal Wiseman, in Rome. I found him entirely 
posted up with regard to the adulterations of liquors, and the 
6 an ef id influences they were exerting on the world, especially the 
laboring classes, and he approved a plan, which, if sanctioned by 
the Roman Catholic bishops in America, he said he would second 
at the Vatican. Other ecclesiastics in Rome, of high station, have 
promised to aid the measure also. 

You will perceive by the English press, that the Chancellor of 
the Exchequer is making an effort to introduce weak, cheap wine 
into England, at a low duty, and then fill the land with additional 
licensed places to sell it, and this as a temperance measure. The 
total abstainers, as well as many others, are up in arms to prevent 
this, and thej^ are bringing up their arguments and statistics to 
prove that, in their opinion, in place of being a << temperance 
measure,' ' it will increase intemperance to a frightful extent. 

The same idea prevails in England, as in many minds in the 
United States, that by the introduction of cheap and weak wines, 
intemperance would by degrees die out. Nothing, in my opinion, 
can be more delusive; let the love of weak wine be established, 
then it will not satisfy, stronger will soon take the place of the 
weak, and then ardent spirits will follow, as a matter of course. 

On thorough examination, facts and arguments have established 
the truth, that all use of alcohol as a beverage, whether in large 



or small quantities, is opposed to health and life: the question is 
only one of degree.. 

Cardinal Wiseman, in writing on the subject, remarks: — 

" Though compared with other nations, the Italians cannot be 
considered as unsober, and the lightness of their ordinary wines 
does not so easily produce lightness of head as heavier potations; 
they are fond of the ost^ria and the bettola, in which they sit and 
sip for hours, encouraged by the very sobriety of their drinks. 
There, time is lost, and evil conversation exchanged; there, stupid 
discussions are raised, whence spring noisy brawls, the jar of which 
kindles tierce passions, and sometimes deadly hate. Occasionally 
even worse ensues. From the tongue sharpened as a sword, the 
inward fury flies to the sharper steel lurking in the vest or the 
legging; and the body pierced by a fatal wound, stretched on the 
threshold of the hostelry, proves the deadly violence to which a 
quarrel over cups may lead." 

This statement of the Cardinal coincides with my examinations, 
and the experience of thirty years. Science and the Bible fully 
sustain the same great doctrine. Science and the Bible, when 
rightly understood (the Author of both being the same), are 
always in harmony. If the Bible sanctions the use of alcohol, or 
intoxicating drinks, as a beverage in health, then there should be 
an end of the movement in favor of total abstinence as a duty; 
but I believe, and think you are of the same opinion, that the 
Bible throughout, is a total abstinence book, as far as intoxicating 
drinks are concerned as a beverage in health. If this view of the 
scriptural doctrine of temperance is true, is it not time that the 
Church of Christ should be governed by it ? If not true, let the 
error be exposed, and the moderate use of alcohol, as a common 
beverage, be henceforth considered true temperance by true tem- 
perance men. 

Rev. Sydney Smith declared: — « If you wish to keep your mind 
or body healthy, abstain from all fermented liquors." 

Sir Henry Holland (his son-in-law) says: — "All men should, 
for health's sake, make at least one fair trial of abandoning the 
use of wine and all intoxicating drinks." 

Lord Acton, while Supreme Judge of Rome (afterw r ards Cardi- 
nal), stated in a letter addressed to me on the subject: — "I beg 
leave to state my opinion upon the proportion of crimes which in 
this country may be traced, for their origin, either to the immode- 
rate use of wine, or to the too great frequenting of public-houses. 
I think I may fairly record one-third under this head." 

Lord Bacon wrote : — "Of all things known to mortals, wine is 
the most powerful and effectual for exciting and inflaming the 
passions of mankind, being common fuel to them all." Of course 
Lord Bacon alluded doubtless to bad wine — w r ine << the mocker " — 
not the wine of the cluster, the press, and the vat; and before 
" the mocker " had been formed by fermentation. 

Milton asks — << What more foul and common sin among us than 
drunkenness ? and who can be ignorant that, if the importation of 



s 

wine, and the use of all strong drink, were forbid dm, it would rid 
the possibility of committing that odious vice, and men might after- 
wards live happily and healthfully, without the use of these intox- 
icating drinks." 

I find the following in a letter addressed by the Rev. D. Burns, 
of London, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer : — << The Archbishop 
of Ca 111 bray in his « Telemachus,' composed for the instruction of 
that young Prince, whose early death was considered a providential 
judgment on France, sought to convey those principles of govern- 
ment and moral conduct which should bless the French nation with 
a wiser sovereign than Louis XLV." 

International peace and free trade, are doctrines of which Fene- 
lon was an early apostle ; and as to wine, what was his sentiment, 
founded on all he saw around him ? There are two passages which 
answer to this inquiry. Adoam had described the happy state ol 
the people of Bceatica; and in answer to the question of Telemachus, 
whether they drank wine, Adoam answered: << They care so little 
for drinking it, that they never wish to make it. Not because they 
are without grapes, for no soil produces more delicious ones, but 
the}* are satisfied with eating the grape, as they do other fruits, 
and the)' dread wine as the corrupter of mankind. It is a species 
of poison, the} r say, which causes madness. It does not make man 
die, but it degrades him into a brute. Men may preserve their 
health and vigour without wine; with wine they run the risk of 
ruining their health and losing their morals." 

Quite as remarkable is the advice given by Mentor to Tdomeneus: 
« I believe, too, that you ought to take care never to allow wine to 
become too common in your kingdom; if too many vines are planted, 
they must be rooted up. Wine is the source of the greatest evils 
among communities. It causes diseases, quarrels, seditions, idle- 
ness, aversion to labour, and family disorder. Let wine, then, be 
preserved as a kind of vestorative, or as a very rare liquor, not to 
be used except for sacrifices, or for extraordinar}' festivities; but 
do not hope to cause the observance of so important a rule, if you 
do not yourself set the example." 

How surprisingly the evidence here recorded of the teachings of 
Fenelon coincides with the opinions of Louis Philippe, and his son, 
the Duke of Orleans, as expressed to me in the presence of General 
Cass, our most worthy minister here in 1838. 

I see that the Rev. D. Burns has recorded the conversation, in 
part, that took place at this interview. This important testimony 
has often been published, but in this communication it may not be 
out of place to give it again. I take it in the main from his letter 
to the Chancellor of the Exchequer: — 

<< How matters stand in France more facts will show; and the 
authorities cited shall be the late King of the French, Louis Pilliippe 
and his much-loved son, the Duke of Orleans. I was anxious, on 
the 19th instant, to place before you the printed statement relating 
to this circumstance, but it will be enough now to explain that, in 
the November of 1^38, Mr. E. C. Delavan, a gentleman of New York 



State, visited France, and obtained an interview with the King, 
who, says Mr. Delavan, « stated expressly that the drunkenness of 
France was occasioned by wine; that in one district of his empire, 
there was much intemperance on gin, but he considered wine the 
great evil. I took the liberty of asking him if I understood him to 
say that his opinion was that wine occasioned most of the evils of 
intoxication in France, and was answered in the same words: — 
< The drunkenness of France is on wine.' 

« I stated to the King that I had been outside the barriers, where 
the common people resort to drink wine, because there it is free of 
duty. « Oh/ said he, < there } r ou will see drunkenness,' and truly 
I had seen it there, in all it horrors and debasing effects, and chiefly 
on wine. I told him my guide said that he thought one-eighth of 
the adult male population of Paris were drunkards; His Majesty 
thought this too great a proportion." The Duke of Orleans, in a 
conversation with the same gentleman, remarked, as the King had 
done, that he had no doubt that all intoxicating drinks are inju- 
rious as a beverage to men in health, and that the intemperance of 
France was on wine. 

<< He also stated that in those districts where most wine was 
made, there also was the greatest wretchedness, and the most fre- 
quent appeals to Government for aid; and also that so large a pro- 
portion of the soil was now cultivated for wine, that the raising of 
stock and grain was diminished to an alarming extent, and that he 
looked to the diminution in the use of wine in other countries as a 
source of hope to France, that failing of a market for her wines, 
the fields of France might be cultivated to greater advantage, to 
produce more abundant food and clothing for the people." I will 
add to the above statement that the Duke of Orleans told me that 
the drinking of a single bottle of wine a day, by the soldier, it being 
weak, would do but little injury; but the use of this bottle stimu- 
lated the appetite, and the pay went to purchase more, the use of 
which caused the breach of rules — and disorders of all kinds — then 
followed court-martials and punishments. 

Louis Philippe, or his son, told me that raw silk, to the value of 
100,000,000 of francs, was yearly imported into France, which 
might be produced in the country, were not the soil monopolised to 
so great a degree by the vine. 

How wise it would be in the Emperor of the French to discourage 
the replacing of the diseased grape vines with new ones; indeed, to 
discourage the cultivation of the grape vine altogether, except for 
food and other allowable purposes. 

Such a course would, in my opinion, add greatly to the wealth, 
health, morals, and general prosperity of the nation. 

Some articles in " Household Words," in 1854, on the workmen 
of France, described the lamentable influence of the wine shops; and 
in 1855, the Times' Paris correspondent, stated that on the 30th 
of October, the Prefect of the Department of the Sarthe had issued 
a circular to all the mayors of his department, in which he de- 
clared <<the resorting to wine houses is deplorable in every respect, 



for there the Government is vilHfied, the health impaired, and the 
resources of the family foolishly squandered, to the detriment of 
morality and religion.' ' 

In the words of Dc Quincey, << Preparations of intoxicating liquor, 
even when harmless in their earlier stages, are fitted to be stepping- 
stones for making the transition to higher stages that are not harm- 
less. " 

Smollett, the historian and novelist, found about a hundred years 
since, in the course of his travels, " that all wine districts are poor, 
and the French peasantry were always more healthy when there 
was a scarcity of wine." 

The Count de Montalembert (and he a Frenchman,- ought to 
know,) said in his place in the French National Assembly, 1850, 
"Where there is a wine shop there are the elements of disease, and 
the frghtful source of all that is at enmity with the interests of the 
workmen." 

In an article in the Magazine, called << The Work-a-day World of 
France," the following alarming picture is drawn of the condition 
of the French industrial centres : — 

<< Drunkenness is the beginning and end of life in the great French 
industrial centres. Against this vice what can the salaries of women 
and children do ? • The woman's labours help the drunken husband 
on his road to ruin. The child is born with disease in his bones> 
and with evil example before him." 

« There are manufacturing towns, (Lille for instance,) where 
the women have followed the example of the men, and have added 
drunkenness to their other vices. It is estimated that at Lille, 25 
out of every 100 men, and 12 out of every 100 women, are confirmed 
drunkards. Here there are even women's wine-shops, where the 
unfortunate frequenters drink coffee and spirits, while their babes 
lie drugged at home with a << dormant," as the popular infant's 
narcotic is called." 

Well may the talented editor "Alliance Weekly News" say •< this 
is a terrible picture; and of France, too, the land of light wines, 
where Mr. Gladstone's Temperance drink is the cheap and abundant 
popular beverage. It is no surprise to us to lgarn that the mayors 
of manufacturing towns in France have begun to turn their eyes 
towards prohibition, as the only available remedy." 

In 1833, Judge Piatt, one of the Supreme Judges of the State of 
New York, stated in a public address, <( that whin the public mind 
was properly enlightened, grog shops would be indictable at com- 
mon law as public nuisances." 

Chancellor Walworth, about the same time, in his annual address 
before the New York State Temperance Society, (of which he was 
their first President,) stated that " it was his opinion that the 
time would come, when men would as soon be engaged in poisoning 
their neighbor's wells, as dealing out to them intoxicating drinks 
to be used as a beverage." 

Horatio Greenough, the eminent American sculptor, in a letter to 
me from Florence, in 1838> said i — «« Many of the more thinking and 



6 

prudent Italians abstain from the use of wine; several of the most 
eminent of the medical men are notoriously opposed to its use, and 
declare it a poison. When I assure you that one-fifth, and some- 
times one-fourth of the earnings of the labourers are expended in 
wine, you may form some idea as to its probable influence on their 
health and thrift. 55 

He also said that the dealers in the weak wines, did not hesitate 
to adulterate them in order to add a trifle to their gains. 

J. Fenimore Cooper, the American novelist, said : — " I came to 
Europe under the impression that there was more drnnkenness 
among us than in any other country, England, perhaps excepted. 
A residence of six months in Paris changed my vi^ws entirely." 

" Light wines, 55 says Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, "nothing so 
treacherous! They inflame the brain like fire, while melting on the 
palate like ice. All inhabitants of light wine countries are quarrel- 
some. 55 

m Oh thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be 
known by, let us call thee DEVIL. 55 — [Shakespeare. 

In a former communication I described Piquette, or the ordinary 
wine (so called) of the country, as being a mere "decoction 55 
leeched from grape stalks, skins, &c, after being drenched with 
w r ater, and after all the wine had been trodden out by the feet. 

In answer to an inquiry with regard to the average value of 
Piquette, &c, Messrs. Barton, Guertier & Co., wrote me from Bor- 
deaux, 27th of April, 1860: — 

« The wine vats of Medoc produce, on an average, 40 hhds. of 
wine; each G3 American gallons, or 48 English Imperial gallons. 

" The average value of Piquette in Medoc, and about Bordeaux, 
has varied, like the wine, 150 per cent, within the last five or six 
years. 

w The Imperial gallon, without the cask, in 1853, was 31 centimes 
(about G sous), in 18G0, 38 centimes (about 8 sous). Piquette 
pure, however, is hardly to be met with, and is replaced by mix- 
tures of cider, rum and water, and all sorts of artificial beverages. 55 

It appears from this that even the mild w r ines are used up by 
fabrications, and mwxed with all sorts of artificial substances, and 
then palmed off upon the public and the nations of the world as pure 
healthful wines. This statement agrees with that of the sculptor 
Greenough. 

The French drink wine as we in America drink tea and coffee. 
No wonder that the great physician, Broussais, found the stomachs 
of most of the adults he dissected, in a state of disease, and that 
he came to the conclusion at last, that that disease was occasioned 
by the use of heating liquors. No wonder, too, that Dr. Sewall, 
of Washington, in his dissections found the stomachs of even regu- 
lar moderate drinkers of intoxicating liquor in a state of inflamma- 
tion, and so recorded them in his admirable drawings of their 
stomachs. How could it be otherwise? Alcohol is as sure to 
make an impression on the stomach as on the face. 

In walking the streets of Paris for weeks past, I have been 



much struck with the difference in appearance of the middle-aged 
and more advanced among the higher classes here and in Italy. 
There the use of strong drink of any kind is limited, and it is rare 
to meet a ftce, among the class specified, indicating intemperance; 
here such faces meet you at every turn, faces not bearing the hue 
of health, but that hue which indicates the ravages of the poison 
alcohol. 

m Alcohol," says Liebig, << is a bill drawn on the laborer's 
health," (every man should be a laborer of some sort) which he 
is incessantly compelled to renew, as he has not funds to meet it; 
the bankruptcy of the body is the inevitable result." 

Dr. Romeyn Beck, in his Medical Jurisprudence, says: 

(i That alcohol, whether found in rum, brandy or wine, is ( poison,' is conceded 
on all hands. It is classed among poisons, because, says a learned writer, ii.ia ono 
of * those substances which are known by physicians as capable of altering or 
destroying, In a majority of cases, some of the functions necessary to life.' " 

I have no doubt the surface of the stomach of the regular mode- 
rate drinker of alcohol is always in a state of disease, and diseased 
in proportion to the alcohol used. It must be so, or Liebig and Dr. 
Beck are in error as respects the qualities of alcohol. 

The diminished production of pure wine on the continent, and 
consequent increase of price, and the fear of being poisoned by fabri- 
cations, may have had some influence, not only in checking con- 
sumption, but in lessening crime and poverty to the like extent. 

Then again the recent great extension of the barriers here has 
brought all the drinking of the inhabitants, within them; before 
this extension the labouring classes of Paris were in the habit of 
resorting to wine shops outside the barriers, where they could 
drink free of duty. Now these same drinking places are brought 
within, and when resorted to for intemperance the city tax on the 
liquor is added to the price. 

Having a letter of introduction to one of the most extensive 
vendors of pure wine here, he stated very frankly that wine was 
not a necessary article, but that, like Adam and Eve, we were all 
prone to do that which was forbidthn. He told me that the wine 
introduced into Paris was not Piquette, but .heady wine; that the 
fabrications took place in the city, and that he believed that full 
one-half the liquor drank as wine in Paris was fabricated. 

I have learned from another source that pretty much all the 
common wine sold in the shops is manufactured in the city, and is 
of the most injurious quality, from the materials used in the manu- 
facture, aside from its contained alcohol. 

Families purchasing directly from makers of known integrity are 
alone partially safe from drugged wine; and even th2y should be 
watchful as to the channel through which they receive it. The 
honest dealers find it difficult to carry on their trade in competition 
with the fabricators. 

The wine merchant above referred to stated that, being ill, his 
physician recommended him to take his own Burgundy as a medi 
cine. In place of taking his advice, ho drank nothing but water 



8 

for six weeks, and recovered. The physician was well pleased with 
the recovery of his patient, and that his remedy had been so effec- 
tual; but when told that water had been substituted for wine, he 
looked blank enough. Still, no temperance movement opposes the 
cautious use of pure intoxicating drink as a medicine; but, when 
used as a medicine, it should be abandoned like other medicines 
the moment it has effected the object for which it was used. 

A gentleman told me that he drank strong beer at dinner by- 
advice of his physician. I asked him, << How long have you been 
taking this medicine at dinner?" << Two years," was his reply. 
I remarked that I thought it rather a singular habit to take medi- 
cine for so long a time at the dinner table. After a moment's 
reflection he laughed outright, and said < c I will own up, I love it." 
Another gentleman of the same city called on me while here in 
1838, and remarked, <<Iam 74 years old; I was in the habit of 
taking two glasses of wine a day as medicine; I gave it up because 
I wished to give my entire example to the cause of temperance, 
and much to my surprise I found the disease left me I had been 
taking wine to cure." While in Rome I saw it announced that he 
had died at the age of 94. I know men sometimes live to a great 
age using alcohol, but they live on in spite of alcohol, and probably 
would have lived much longer without it. Let one case in a 
thousand exist like this, and it is constantly quoted in oppo- 
sition to the only safe principle — total abstinence from all that 
can intoxicate as a beverage in health. 

Cl Out of a caravan of eighty-two persons, who crossed the great desert from 
Algiers to Timbuctoo, the present summer, all but fifteen used wine and other 
liquors, as a preventative against African diseases. Soon after reaching Tim- 
buctoo, these all died, save one; while of the fifteen who abstained all survived. 7 ' 

This wine merchant directed me to where I could see the results 
of wine drinking in all its debasement. I visited one wine shop 
with my guide last evening (Monday); I saw the proprietor, and 
told him that I was curious to see his establishment; he was very 
polite, and sent a person round with us. 

At the lowest, five hundred persons were already assembled, and 
the people were flocking there in droves; men, women, and chil- 
dren, whole families, young girls alone, boys alone, taking their 
seats at tables; a mother with an infant on her arm came reeling 
up one of the passages. 

It was an immense establishment, occup3'ing three sides of a 
{square, three or four stories high, and filling rapidly with wine 
votaries. I saw hundreds in a state of intoxication, to a greater or 
less degree. All, or nearly all, had wine before them. 

The attendant stated to me, that the day before (Sunday) at 
least 2,000 visited the establishment, and that the average con- 
sumption of wine w r as 2,000 bottles per day. 

This place was considered a rather respectable wine shop. M} r 
guide then took me to another establishment, not ten minutes' ride 
from the Emperor's Palace. 
. . The scene here beggars description. I found myself in a narrow 



lane, filled with men and women of the lowest grade. The first 
object which met my sight was a man dragging another out of the 
den by the hair into the lane. Then commenced a most inhuman 
fight; at least fifty people were at hand, but not a soul attempted 
to part the combatants; at last one fell against the curb-stone, I 
thought him dead, but he soon got up again, and at it they went. 

I then entered into the outer room of the establishment, which 
was packed full of the most degraded human beings I ever beheld, 
drinking wine, and talking in loud voices. I did not dare to pro- 
ceed farther. It was much worse than the wine shops I visited in 
Rome, in 1839, when I was sent by Cardinal Acton, to see the 
result of wine drinking there. It is rather a remarkable fact, that 
in starting on my expedition last night, as I was entering my cab 
for the purpose, the very man who took me to that Roman wine 
shop, in 1839, was standing at the door of my hotel. 

I asked him if he remembered the circumstance. " Oh, well," 
said he. << It was bad enough;" and well do I recollect his having 
said to me at the time, «< Let us go, our lives are in danger here." 

I was informed by the cabman that, in the establishment last 
visited, he had seen from 80 to 150 lying drunk at a time; that 
they freqently drank to beastly drunkenness, and remained until 
the fumes passed off, for if found drunk in the streets the police 
take them in charge. 

Mr. Gladstone's plan of inundating Great Britain with French 
liquor, called wine, at a low rate of duty, as a temperance meas- 
ure, is calling forth extensive and thorough information with regard 
to the effect of the use of wine on the inhabitants of mis-named 
tzmptratz drinking France. An intelligent Englishman, now engaged 
in making examinations with regard to this important question, has 
written a long letter to his correspondent in England, giving some 
of the results. I make a brief extract from his letter: 

" That men — any men — can sit for hours drinking wine, of ever so moderate a 
pereentate of alcohol, without perceptible effect, no one can believe. When, how- 
ever, we find that the wine is not so moderate as is commonly supposed, and that 
the stronger liquors are pretty freely used, the effort to maintain a calm exterior 
becomes a more difficult matter. Anyhow, even within the early hours, the effect 
is apparently on not a few; while, as evening advances, the reign of Bacchus 
becomes more conspicuous. 

" If. not (in appearance) drunk, they are excited. If stupefied, they would be 
comparatively harmless. If maddened, they would be shunned. The simple Boor 
sleeps after his pot, and is wheeled to his bed. The whisky-loving Irishman flour- 
ishes his stick, and makes a clear course with all except another inspired one. The 
wine -elevated Frenchman is raised to the dangerous point — dangerous to himself 
and others. His passions are not drowned or enfeebled, but developed and intensi- 
fied. He has had sufficient to silence conscience ; but not to subdue reason. He is 
not bestialised but devilised. Such a man requires not to be placed within the 
sphere of temptation to commit sin; he carries with him a defiled moral atmosphere, 
and becomes himself the tempter. The principles of true honor are forgotten, and 
the claims of friendship and society are disregarded. He is prepared to execute 
any evil to gratify his own unholy feelings, provided he does not place himself in 
danger. Burning with base passions, he is not so lost by the drink as to hazard his 
own person or fail to win his object by incautious haste. He is thus truly drunk in 
the worst possible degree — in the most dangerous sense. As I shall be hereafter 
able to prove, in my subsequent communications, the sad moral state of France and 
other continental countries, is more owing to alcoholic liquors, mild as they may be, 
than to all other causes put together*" 



10 

I acid from another reliable source : 

" With regard to intemperance, it has almost become an accepted fact, that it is 
more prevalent in England than in any other country. But ice have only wanted 
accurate and reliable statistics to dispel this fallacy. Mr. Jules Simon shows 
us that in the manufacturing towns of France, that hitherto accepted model of a 
temperate country, the working classes who inhabit the squalid lodgings of the back 
slums are as violently addicted to liquor, as the most degraded of the Fame class in 
England. AVe can hnd no parallel in London to the picture drawn b} r M. Simon, of 
a Rouen wine-shop. The workmen are no sooner let loose from the factory than 
they rush in a mass to the cabaret, while a crowd of weeping wives may be seen 
waiting for them for weary hours outside the doors. The apprentices, at the early 
age of 12, may be seen drinking the coarse brandy, which they very aptly call the 
i cruel.' As a body, these workmen and their families are feeble and sickly. They 
die at a terrible rate." 

Cardinal Acton stated to me, in 1839, the Government of Rome 
had more to fear from the wine shops than from any other source. 

I am convinced that the Emperor of the French has more to feai 
from the wine shops than all other sources united. They furnish 
the material for riot and revolution, and the wine drank in them is 
the stimulant to every vice. Americans and others visiting the 
fashionable walks of Paris and other continental cities, seeing but 
few staggering men in the streets, suppose, and honestly suppose, 
that wine countries are, in a great measure, free from the vice of 
intemperance, but it is a great mistake. I was told there were 
hundreds of such places in Paris as I visited last night. 

I do hope that hereafter my countrymen interested in the ques- 
tion, when in Paris, will devote an hour or two on some Monday 
evening to the examination I went through last night. By so 
doing, they would, like Mr. Greeley, of the Tribune, help to cor- 
rect a great mistake. I could not but wish last evening that Mr. 
Gladstone had been with me. Had he seen what I saw, I think 
we should hear no more of his Wine Bill, unless immediate income 
has more weight with him than public morals, which I do not 
believe. 

Solomon seems to have understood this matter better than some 
good men of the present day, when he says:*-" Wine is a mocker, 
strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not 
wise." "Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath con- 
tentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? 
Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; 
they that go to seek mixed wine." And it would seem that Isaiah 
had witnessed scenes somewhat similar to those described, when 
he said: — "But they also have erred through wine, and through 
strong drink are out of the wa}^; the priest and the prophet have 
erred through strong drink; they are swallowed up of wine; they 
are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, 
the}'- stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and 
fllthiness, so that there is no place clean." 

If such facts and opinions as the above, from men who could 
have no motive to mislead, will not satisfy the intelligent mind of 
the fallacy of introducing cheap and weak wines into any country, 
as a temperance measure, I do not know what will. 



11 

Brussels, Belgium, May 4th, 18C0. 

Being in this city for a day or two only, I have had no time to 
make any personal examination, but while visiting the Parliament 
House, 1 met with a very intelligent person, who gave me some in- 
furmation on the drinking usages of the people. 

lie stated that the principal beverage is strong beer, of which, at 
least 200 tuns are consumed daily in Brussels, each tun containing 
from 250 to 300 litres. Besides this beer, much French wine is 
drank, most of which is very bad, being falsified. He stated that 
a large proportion of the deaths here are occasioned b} r these 
drinks. Many will drink from ten to twelve large glasses of beer 
at a sitting. 

London. May dth. 

When in this city, in 1838, I attended a vast meeting of the 
friends of temperance from all parts of the kingdom, at Exeter Hall. 
After a severe and exciting contest, the pledge of the American 
Temperance Union was adopted by a vote almost unanimous. The 
Queen was then at the head of the movement opposed to the use of 
ardent spirits. 

Since the adoption of the total abstinence pledge, I believe no 
organization fovouring any other exists, either in this country or 
any other. The name is of little importance, the thing is every- 
thing; alcohol is the same poison, whether found in the wine 
decanter or the gin flask. 

"When alcohol in the wine cup was assailed, although the same 
poison as alcohol in the w r hisky jug, many, as you well know, 
walked no longer with us. I could give a tragical history of some 
who halted, while you and others went right on. Not a day has 
passed over my head since I was here, in 1838, that I have not felt 
deep regret that Her Majesty could not have seen it to be her duty 
at that time, to continue in the movement, and sanction total absti- 
nence from the use of alcohol in fermented drinks, as she has from 
alcohol in ardent spirits. I pray she may yet see it to be her duty 
to take the step. 

I have had a long conversation with one of Her Majesty's house 
hold; he spoke of the habits of the Queen and the heir to the thrcme, 
and as extremely moderate in the use of strong drink. I asked 
him what he thought the effect upon the world would be, should 
they adopt entire abstinence: his reply was, « mighty." 

Last night was one of deep interest to me. At an early hour, I 
was placed, by the politeness of a member, in one of the best seats 
for listening to the debates on the floor of the House of Commons. 
The great discussion of the night was the Chancellor of the Exche- 
quer's wine bill, to extend licenses to vend wine to all persons selling 
refreshments. The object of the bill was to bring eating and 
wine drinking into an indissoluble union. Had the bill passed in 
the shape it was introduced by Mr. Gladstone, I have no doubt 
there would have been 100,000 licensed drinking' shops added to 
those alread}' in existence. 

The opposition to the measure was very powerful, and T suppose, 



12 

for the first time, the principle of total abstinence was broached in 
Parliament. Very feeble, indeed, was the advocacy in its favour. 
One member remarked, << should the bill be passed, the drunkenness 
of Paris will be superadded to that of London." 

How I did wish men could have been there like Bishop Alonzo 
Potter, of Pennsylvania, General Car}^ Chancellor Walworth, 
and many others I could mention, to shed light upon this great 
subject; but, as it was, the Chancellor of the Exchequer trembled 
for his measure, and had he not promised to amend it in many im- 
portant particulars, it never could have reached (I have been 
assured) its third reading. I send you the London Times containing 
the discussion. 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledged that the whole 
question of license was involved in the discussion. I think, with 
him, that the question now before Parliament << does involve the 
whole license system " — a system honestly designed to check intem- 
perance, but its effect ever has been to legalise and make respectable 
a traffic which, in fact, is a most intolerable nuisance, and the 
parent of every crime known to the courts. When the public mind 
shall be properly instructed with regards to the results of this 
system, pure minded law makers will as soon license men to go 
forth with poisoned daggers, to stab their fellow-creatures, as 
license them, with poisonous liquors to execute, and with unrelent- 
ing vengeance, on like unsuspecting victims, the same work of 
death. 

Lord Chesterfield, in his address before the House of Lords, 125 
years ago, touched the point exactly. He said : << luxury my lords, 
is to be taxed, but vice prohibted, let the difficulty of the law be 
what it will. Luxury, or that which is pernicious by excess, may 
very properly be taxed, that such excess, though not unlawful, 
may be made more difficult; but the use of those things which are 
simply hurtful in their own nature, (intoxicating drinks as a bev- 
erage are always so,) and in every degree, is to be prohibited." 

I must in candour say that it is my belief that, from the peculiar 
government and stability of the laws in Great Britain, the rich 
blessings to flow from the total prohibition of the liquor traffic will 
be enjoyed there much sooner than with us in America. 

I am rejoiced to find that the labour of instructing the public 
mind on this question is in the hands of men who will never relax 
their efforts until the work be accomplished. 

The belief is becoming more and more diffused, that intoxicating 
liquors are never necessary or beneficial as a beverage in health. 
Their sale for such use is at war with the best interests of the 
people, under every government, and in every land. 

Physicians are greatly in the way of the total abstinence move- 
ment. I have hardly conversed with a moderate drinker who harr 
not opposed me by saying, << I drink by order of my physician." 
Even Mr. Gladstone, in defence of his own wine bill, read a note 
from Dr. Ferguson in favour of it, and remarked also that the 
same celebrated physician recommended wine to him in << no illibe 



13 

ral potations." (Now this same Dr. Ferguson signed a certificate, 
with hundreds of the most distinguished medical men in the 
country, giving it as their opinion that the use of even fermented 
drinks was never necessary, but injurious as a beverage in health, 
and millions of copies of this certificate were circulated in the United 
States.) Doctors ought, it should seem, to know better. Look 
back, my dear sir, to the end of many of the greatest statesmen 
in our own, as well as in this country. In how many instances 
have they been betrayed by the fallacy of the assumption that 
wine is a healthful beverage, into a practice which has proved fatal 
alike to their happiness and their virtue. 

Surely it cannot be desirable to superadd to the miseries occa- 
sioned by beer drinking in England, the intense miseries inflicted 
by the drinking of the fabricated wines of France. 

The more wealthy classes will not drink the kind of wine now 
about to be introduced; the object is to induce the middle classes 
to take to wine drinking as a temperance measure. 

If the Emperor of the French really entertains malicious designs 
against England, to wipe out the recollection of "Waterloo, and the 
thoughts which St. Helena naturally calls forth, I do not see how 
he could have his feelings more gratified than by deluging the Eng- 
lish nation with his fabricated drinks. 

I have no doubt, should Mr. Gladstone's plan be fully carried 
out, there would be more people destroyed by it yearly in this 
country than fell on the field of Waterloo. 

It is a well ascertained fact, that there is not enough pure wine 
produced in France to supply the tables of the wealthy of that 
country, so that shipments of the << decoctions " called wine, as a 
general rule, will be of the most disgusting and poisonous charac- 
ter, unfit to be used by man or beast. Forty years ago, and 
before science had taught the secret of transmutation of drinks, 
and when alcohol was the only poison in them to be contended 
with, a man might live-on using them, << with all becoming mode- 
ration," for twenty years or so, without becoming a staggering 
drunkard; but now, since these scientific discoveries, it is a well 
ascertained fact in the United States, that on the average a man 
does not live over three years after the love of these fabricated 
intoxicating drinks has gained an ascendancy over him. 

Of all the humbugs by which the good people of England and 
America are taken in, there is none quite equal to the wine hum- 
bug. I find the following in the London Times, in relation to the 
individual who negotiated the Commercial Treaty with France (I 
only apply to the wine part of it) — « To use a good old word, which 
in the days of Quien Anne was classical English, the Emperor 
has completely < bubbled i him." 

The Times remarks that the object of the bill is to introduce a 
drink << less poisonous " than gin. Why in the name of common 
sense should Government desire to introduce a « poisonous " drink 
at all, and then commission men to sell it as a common beverage ? 

What are to be the remedies for the appalling evils, flowing from 



14 

the use of alcohol, as a beverage? for alcohol is the poison which 
causes the drunkenness of the world. Alcohol is, indeed, a good 
creature of God, but misapplied when used as a beverage in health, 
as really as laudanum or prussic acid would be. 

The doctrine that the Bible sanctions the use of intoxicating 
drinks, as a beverage, has been the bane of the church, and has 
already caused the downfall of millions upon millions within its 
Pale, and is still leading other millions on to the same impending 
judgment. 

The delusive doctrine, that the moderate use of intoxicating 
drinks as a beverage, are safe, and excess is only to be avoided, 
has caused most of the drunkenness of the world; this delusion 
must be expelled, or intemperance will continue to the end of time. 
The use of alcohol, as a beverage in health, is at all times, and in 
all cases, a violation of the laws of life, which are the laws of God; 
and so long as such moderate use of intoxicating poison is sanc- 
tioned, or winked at by the church, drunkenness will (though 
unwittingly) be sanctioned. 

Temperance organizations have, through their presses and lectures, 
furnished the world with facts and arguments to show that there 
can be no cure for the mighty evil in question, but total absti- 
nence; by doing which they have cleared the way for the church 
to come to the rescue, and carry forward the glorious work to its 
final consummation. This done, the church having spoken, and 
the national conscience quickened by her voice, the right kind of 
legislation will follow, and an end be put to the sale of poisons, 
which now (under sanction of law) is producing an amount of 
disease, poverty, taxation and crime, under the weight of which 
the nation, especially our cities, groan. 

Even now the people of the United States are fully prepared for 
stringent laws against the vending of fabricated liquors. 

Let Congress enact a law to have trustworthy chemists appointed 
in all our ports of entry, to test imported liquors, and if found to 
be adulterated condemned. Let State legislators enact laws to pre- 
vent the sale of adulterated liquors, and to inflict severe punishment 
on those infringing such laws, and a step would be taken in the 
right direction — a step which, by the blessing of God, might prove 
the inception of measures destined to lead to the removal of the 
mrse of intemperance, to the renovation of the world. 

The use of tobacco in Europe is becoming as general as in America, 
and its effects are most manifest; the evil is second only to the use 
of alcohol, and if not arrested will, in time, reduce the people of 
Europe and America to the present condition of China and Turkey, 
through their use of opium. 

The testimony of Lord Brougham is of great value with regard 
to the wine question. He has an estate on the Continent; he resides 
thereon a part of the year, and can speak from personal observa- 
tion. I visited his Lordship in his castle in England; we exchanged 
views on the Temperance question generally; his mind is tending 
to prohibition. He asked me whether I thought strong beer inju 



15 

rious; I replied, << just so far as it contains alcohol and drugs; just 
so far I consider it injurious as a beverage in health." He gave 
three very significant nods to my reply; I concluded he understood 
the science of alcohol as well as Liebig. in an address before the 
society for the promotion of social science, delivered at Glasgow, 
speaking of the Maine Liquor Law, he says, and I think with great 
truth and justice: 

u At our last Congress great attention was given to the important 
subject of temperance, and especially to the necessity of preparing 
public opinion for those repressive measures which experience daily 
proves more and more clearly to be required for lessening the con- 
sumption of spirituous liquors. The great source of pauperism and 
of crimes has hitherto only been attacked by palliatives, and 
although these have had a certain success, yet if there be any means 
not exposed to serious objections, by which the evil may be extir- 
pated, the gain to society would be incalculable. Kemember the 
memorable expression of that great philanthropist, our eminent col- 
league, the Recorder of Birmingham, < Whatever step I take,' says 
Mr. Hill, « and into whatever direction I may strike, the drink 
demon starts up before me, and blocks the way. 5 

<< This is a subject which, happily with us, has never in any 
respect, been brought within the dominion of party, either civil or 
religious. Such, however, has been its lot in the New World; 
and it affords the most remarkable illustration of the evils which 
afflict the United States from the practice of their constitution, 
maintaining in every part of the country an incessant canvass, 
caused by the distribution of patronage and change of offices. Every 
subject of a nature to interest the community, and thus to create a 
difference of opinion, becomes the ground of controversy to contend- 
ing parties, and so the Maine Liquor Law becomes a question upon 
which Governors were chosen and removed. The evils which the 
suspension of that law occasioned in the great increase of pauperism 
and crimes which had, under its beneficent operation, been reduced 
within an incredibly narrow compass, but which now rapidly 
revived, so seriously impressed men's minds with the mischief of 
having made it a party question that a resolution was passed at the 
State convention against ever so treating the subject hereafter. 
Nothing can redound more to the honor of the American people than 
their thus firmly persevering in their just and righteous determina- 
tion. But it is impossible to avoid feeling how great is our happi- 
ness in this country to be free from the influence of such disturbing 
forces upon our most important measures. We discuss them freely 
on their own merits, and apply to the consideration of them those 
principles which, on mere matters of science — but science reduced 
to practice — sliould guide the inquiry and dictate the conclusions. 
We are removed above the storms raised by popular fury, nor are 
ever stunned by the noise which the psalmist compares to that of 
the raging sea; and our vision is not obscured by the clouds which 
faction drives together." Yours very truly, 

EDWARD* C. DELAVAX. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



16 



027 279 906 4 



Lord Brougham, referring to the letter (p. 15) in the House 
of Lords, while Mr. Gladstone'! wine bill was under d: 
sustained the views therein expressed with regard to tenipei 

un the continent. 

The United Kingdom Tbxfbeancb Alliance of Great Britain 

(■called the QREAT Allian e by Lord Brougham) has its head-quarters 
and its powerful press in Manchester. . . . Its mam labor is 
now directed to Parliamentary law, giving power to magistrates in 
all localities to withhold license in such localities, to sell intoxi- 
cating drink as a beverage, when two-thirds of the rate payers 
desire it. Very many districts have been canvassed, and it has 
been ascertained that, as a general rule, ovjr two-thirds of the rate 
payers are in favor of the measure. That the Alliance will, in the 
end, obtain its object, no one can doubt, who understands its 
machinery and the moral power of the mon working it. 

The President of the organization is Sir Walter Trevelayn, with 
thirty-two distinguished gentlemen in Church, and State, as \ 
Presidents, among which are: 

The lit. Hon. the Earl of Harrington, K.C.B., Elvaston Castle. 

Sir William A'Beckett, Chief Justice of Victoria. 

Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart., Bray ton, near Carlisle. 

The Very Rev. Dean Cotton, Bangor. 

The Very Bev. F. Close, Dean of Carlisle. 

Lawrence Ileyworth, Esq., Liverpool. 

W. Harvey, Esq., Manchester, Chairman Executive Committee. 
Samuel Pope, Esq., do Honorary Secretary. 

T. M. Barker, Esq., do Secretary. 

The << Alliance Weekly News " is published at 41 John Dalton 
Street, Manchester, and is the organ of the Association. The reli- 
B and temperance press of the United States would do well to 
exchamre with the << Alliance News." 



[This edition of 10,000 copies is reprinted from the Manchester (Eng.) publication, 
with some additional mutter.] 

Published by Sheldon, Blacsman & Co., New Yorkj American 
Tempkraxck Union, New York, and by Chas. Van Bbnthuyskn, 

Albany, to whom orders may be addressed. 

tkhms: 

Single copies (including postage) 3 cents. 

Twenty copies do 25 cents. 

Forty coj do 50 cents. 

Eighty copies do §1 00 

By express, one hundred copies or over, per hundred, 

delivered at express offices in Albany or New York, $1 00 



